[Juha]

What means close escort? Right into the end of bigger daylight bomber attacks 110s tended to form their Spanish Rings, IMHO not a close escort tactic but trying to control a certain air space and producing a threat to RAF fighters planning to attack bombers, maybe tied at least part of the defending fighters to watch the threat and also making it possible to make diving attacks on fighters which ignored 110s and tried to attack bombers. The question was how eagerly 110s left the ring for an attack and IMHO that varied, sometimes FC pilots thought that 110s were reluctant to leave the relative safety of the ring, sometimes 110s gave adequate protection to bombers.

On LW air gunners generally
In the Richard Hough’s and Denis Richards’ The Battle of Britain. Coronet edition 1990 ISBN 0 340 53470 2. Exact location p. 156 note**, the study was based on opinions given in 1988 by some 100 surviving BoB pilots. 40 rated the quality of German bomber gunnery good or excellent, 32 thought it average and 30 poor. In text on that page is a short note of a combat where gunners of a tight formation of Dorniers shot down two British fighters and in the note is mentioned a combat in which 9 He 111s shot down three out of the first six attacking Hurricanes.

In both cases bombers kept their formations and in the later case, if I identified the right combat years ago, the first Hurricane attack was poorly planned and attacking fighters were caught by effective cross fire.

IMHO I doubt that the 110 pilots held their WO/AGs in low regard, after all they were a team and a team needed respect between its members to work effectively. Both pilots and WO/AGs might have low opinion on the effectiveness of lone MG 15 against 8 gun fighters but that is a different thing.

Juha